The Community Garden of Raymond

This past year, the mayor of our town, Isla Tullos, put together a community garden on the grounds of the old Co-op. Although I joined late in the year, there are still some great vegetables. The Okra plants are the size of small trees. Today, I started pulling up some of the 100 tomato plants, and picked at least 50 pounds of tomatoes which will be distributed throughout the town. Although these late tomatoes are still green, most southerners like fried green tomatoes. Wasn’t there a movie with that title?  Anyway, there are wonderful cabbages growing, and the greens are just great. I cooked some the other night. So if you’re driving by the garden, take a look at what a great job our mayor has done.

                                                            Bounty from the Garden

A Shooting!

We have 1 homeless person in Raymond, and although he probably could stay with his parents, he prefers to live outside. Some days, when he’s on medication, he seems calmer and more rational. Other days, he is so involved with the voices in his head, that he hardly notices anything else. He’s not dangerous though, to anyone else but himself.

Well, this morning, when Elaine and I were walking past the Quonset hut that’s diagonally across from the old Co-op, we saw a car in the driveway. We usually stop to feed Slim, the black cat who lives there. At first, Elaine suggested that he had an overnight guest, but when our homeless person got out of the car, he had a sling on his arm. And the older woman in the car turned out to be his mother. He told us that his mother’s husband shot him last night and he had just gotten back from the hospital. He was very proud that the bullet shattered his upper arm and shoulder. He said he may even have an operation. OMG! Now, I admit that it is very wrong to shoot someone, but sometimes the victim is so annoying, and so intense, that the only choice is to shoot him. Fortunately, most people control those types of urges. As we continued on our walk, we just shook our heads with wonder. Not much happens in Raymond, so this was the big event of the day.

                                                                              Samhain

The Last of Summer

Took a tour around my yard this afternoon, and was surprised by the intensity of the Lantana growing in my front yard. Earlier in the summer, they came down with a fungus, but look at them now!

Observations of the Week

                                           Went to the gym and parked next to this very blue car.

          Went to a yard sale and no one was home but the cat. I didn't know cats could drive cars...

                                Two days worth of growth on Elaine's chair, and it isn't Kudzu.

Ever since Mississippi passed an open carry law for guns, these notices have been popping up all over town.
No one with a business wants shoppers with guns.Whoops! Guess the legislation didn't think about that! No hunting for groceries.

 This is a view of our hallway taken in summer. Please notice the blazing sun coming through the front door.

This is a view of our living room, looking into the kitchen. Great Grandmother Eaton's pink Victorian couch is still with us. 

                Kāli is the Hindu goddess of time, change, and destruction.  This is her basket.

The Farmer in the Dell
               or
The Cheese Stands Alone

Why does "the cheese stand alone"? Remember the "Farmer in the Dell" song? It ends with the line "the cheese stands alone". I’ve always wondered about the cheese. Why does it stand alone?

Suggested Answers:

Perhaps it's really good quality cheese and needs no accompaniment. Or perhaps it just stands alone...waiting for the right wine to come along.

We also have to consider that the cheese may have been moved there.
The question is ... WHO moved it?

1) Because that's just its whey.

2) Because "The Farmer in the Dell" is not just a song but a dance. At the beginning, one child, the "farmer," stands in the center of a circle, and the other children sing and dance around him/her. On the first verse, s/he chooses a spouse, and that child leaves the circle to join the farmer at the center. The spouse takes a child on the next verse; on the next the child picks a nurse; shortly after that it's a barnyard menagerie that lasts long enough to pack the rest of the kids into the center, with the proviso that the last four characters "taken" are the dog, cat, rat, and cheese. The cheese, having no one left to "take," stands alone, and gets to be the farmer on the next go-round. Would that then make him or her the Big Cheese?

Because it sits... And waits... And... Plans.
Soon, my pretties, soon... You will behold the TRUE power of cheese!

Even Venezuelan Beaver Cheese enjoys solitude now and then.

Are we assuming that it's a problem for the cheese to stand alone? Perhaps the cheese prefers to be unpartnered.

Maybe the cheese wasn't a gouda dancer.

Because while it pretended to be nice, it was really a predatory muenster.

The others are apostates, and do not believe in cheeses.

When we sing it here at home, my little girls stand and raise a fist for the last verse--it's some sort of Cheese Power thing.